“Hmmm...interesting.” Dr Wetherall grumbled, tapping the part of his faceplate in front of his beard as he scanned the ocean of symbols. “No wonder our gear isn’t working properly. We’re only using about seventy percent of the code base correctly. Well done on this conversion architecture, old boy! I’m going to save a copy and try a few things I thought of while dangling from that tree back there.” 

They continued following the rapids for another hour in relative silence, except for a few exchanges and observations between the scientists. After a little while, the Sacred Band lowered their weapons and assumed a quicker march than before, meaning they made up some of the lost time. Carthage easily kept up without losing breath, often jogging backwards and encouraging the civilians to hurry.

Eventually, the river slowed to a languid crawl. The incline levelled out steadily until they rounded a corner onto a flat ledge. Off to their left, the river disappeared inside a cavern attached to the side of a towering mountain. The bright light they were headed to was distantly visible above the entrance. In front and below them, the canyonsides fell away to reveal a huge valley nestled between four mountains, shrouded in gloom. “There’s a path here.” Athena peered over the edge of the ridge. “We could scale down it, find another route through this mountain range on the other side of the valley.” 

“That’ll take all day." 595 replied, then pointed to the cavern. “That’ll take all day. This river must lead somewhere; we could shave hours off our journey.” Thebes shook his head. “I don’t like it. Lots of tight corners and not a lot of exits.”